Thursday 5 September 2013 11.49 EDT
First published on Thursday 5 September 2013 11.49 EDT

1 Because they set out to matter

The name is the intention and the intention is in the name. When they first formed, the group toyed with calling themselves the Weak Heartdrops, the Psychotic Negatives or the Outsiders. After seeing the word occur several times in the Evening Standard, Paul Simonon came up with the Clash. Taken from current affairs, this random but inspired scan placed the group in the world at the same time as it denoted aggression and, eventually, artistic practice — a clash of opposing forces and a clash of styles.

Pop was not doing its job of reflecting and shaping the times. Born between 1952 and 1959, the punk generation had seen the Sixties unfold in front of their eyes as children. Once they were of age, all that hope and excitement had evaporated. Mainstream pop was an offensive joke and, as far as white rock was concerned, there was little alternative: only old records held that excitement, or the sharp end of pub rock such as Dr Feelgood and Eddie and the Hot Rods. There seemed to be nothing.

2 They were rooted in their place and their time

The Clash, like the Sex Pistols, the Damned, and Buzzcocks, were a product of scarcity and focus. Primed to make a difference, they began by taking inspiration from their part of London – loosely the square marked by Holland Park Avenue, the Westway Spur, the Westway itself and Paddington. It was a decrepit area, full of decayed Victorian housing stock that had been left to rot, scarred by the motorway overpass and monstrous clumps of high-rise flats.

Rehearsing in the rabbit-warren of old British Rail buildings just north of Camden Lock, the Clash placed W10 and W11 at the centre of their iconography and sound: they played their first show in front of Paul Simonon's magical-realist panorama of the area, while their first signature song, White Riot, placed the listener in the centre of the riot that ended the Notting Hill carnival of 1976. News reports told of "clashes" between police and carnival-goers.

3 They loved the Ramones

The Ramones' first album changed everything. It was, and remains, perfect. It sped up British rock: all the punk groups that formed after its April 1976 release assumed its accelerated, abbreviated template. Only the Sex Pistols retained the tension and release of the previous generation, such as the Who and the Faces. The early Clash were in the classic London tradition (the Who, the Kinks), but revved up into an unprecedented pitch of speed and fury. This was the sound of late 1976.

4 But they also loved reggae

Which was the crucial difference between the Clash and the many Ramones-inspired groups that popped up in 1977. London is a great black-music town, and the sound of reggae, and in particular dub, could be heard all over the capital in those days. Early unrecorded songs such as How Can I Understand the Flies used the dub idea of drop-out, where all the instruments disappear from the sound, leaving just the rhythm.

5 They started local and went global

The insert of Give 'Em Enough Rope pictured the Clash, dressed in leathers and radical insignia, backdropped by a map of global hot spots. This seemed like a hyperbolic world view of conflict and injustice, but in retrospect it pointed to the future: forget the back-biting of 1978 London and the constrictions of punk rock, they would become global travellers. They would broadcast London to the world, while including the world in their itinerary and their sound.

The Clash were a total artwork, in which street suss, specially made clothing, painting, sleeve design mixed with charged live shows, expertly arranged records, strong melodies, and a humanistic, charismatic front man combined to create a standard for what rock groups could and should be. To be sure there were follies and inconsistencies. But the proof is in the music, which delights in the power of electric guitars and the utopian principle — there could be another way! — which those instruments once broadcasted, loud and clear.

•This is an abridged version of an article from the launch edition of Esquire Weekly, which is available from Appstore.com/EsquireUK. The Clash Hit Back and The Clash Soundsystem box set are released on 9 September